In the field of wireless communication, a wireless Access Point (AP) may transmit data over a shared access medium to multiple wireless communication stations, for example, using multicast or broadcast mechanisms. For example, audio streaming, video streaming, gaming applications, enterprise training applications, and other types of applications may utilize multicast or broadcast to transmit data to multiple stations.
Unfortunately, due to characteristics of the shared access medium, and due to mobility of the wireless communication stations, the data transfer using multicast or broadcast may not be reliable; for example, one or more of the wireless communication stations may experience a relatively high frame loss rate (FLR). A leader methodology has been proposed as one solution to this reliability problem.
Inherent in any wireless network is the ability for a malicious agent to sniff, intercept, and counterfeit wireless traffic. This is due to the over-the-air aspect of wireless traffic. As a result, a leader methodology can be compromised through the use of counterfeit acknowledgements. In a compromised scenario, a rogue station could monitor the network for the designated leader and use this information to ACK all traffic, reducing the effectiveness of the leader-based ACK system. Further, by determining the leader of the network, a malicious agent can target that station for attack, potentially affecting the entire network by requiring that the AP rebroadcast packets that were lost by the leader during the attack.
Thus, a strong need exists for a more secure device, system and method of multicast/broadcast communications.
It will be appreciated that for simplicity and clarity of illustration, elements illustrated in the figures have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements are exaggerated relative to other elements for clarity. Further, where considered appropriate, reference numerals have been repeated among the figures to indicate corresponding or analogous elements.